Cirque d'été

About

The Circus d'Été (French pronunciation: [sik dete], Summer Circus), a formation Parisian equestrian theatre and indoor hippodrome, was built in 1841 to designs by the architect Jacques Hittorff. It was used as the summer home of the Théâtre Franconi, the equestrian troupe of the Cirque Olympique, the license for which had been sold in 1836 to Louis Dejean by Adolphe Franconi, the grandson of its founder, Antonio Franconi. The circus was later also used for other purposes, including large concerts conducted by Hector Berlioz.

The new theater was located on the north-east side of the present Rond-Point of the Champs-Élysées. At first called the Cirque National, it also became known as the Cirque des Champs-Élysées and the Cirque Olympiques des Champs-Élysées. In 1853 it was reborn Cirque de l'Empresse (in honor of the new Empress Eugénie), a name which it contained until the fall of the empire in 1870.

The circus on the Champs-Élysées should not be confused with the same company's winter theater, the Cirque Olympique on the Boulevard du Temple, which had opened in 1827, or with the company's later winter theater, the Cirque Napoléon (on the rue des Filles Calvaires), also built for Louis...